Reviews: Hoyle, Fred

The Black Cloud —
Fred Hoyle

1957’s
The
Black Cloud
was Sir Fred Hoyle’s first novel.

A
young astronomer working
a blink comparator gets a career-making break when he notices
that a small black region on two photographic plates grew measurably
in the month between exposures. After a hurried consultation, the
discoverer and his colleagues conclude:

The
dark spot is an interstellar cloud.

Its
apparent growth is because it is headed towards the Solar System.

The
lack of transverse motion means that it is headed directly at the
Solar System.

It
will arrive in about two years.

Exciting
times to be an astronomer! Very exciting, because if the cloud passes
between the Earth and the Sun it is dense enough to blot out sunlight
entirely
1, dooming us all to a slow lingering death.

Well,
the discoverer can enjoy his enhanced career for the two years he has left.